All in a single small cell base station no bigger than a ream of A4 paper, the new 4G LTE-Advanced solution combined StarHub’s 55MHz of frequency spectrum across the 1800MHz, 2100MHz and 2600MHz bands to deliver gigabit-bandwidth. Other technological breakthroughs in small cell air interface that enabled higher 4G data rates include 256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation, 3-component-carrier aggregation and Distributed Multiple Input Multiple Output.

This milestone comes after StarHub’s deployment of Huawei’s award-winning small cell solution as part of its 4G LTE-Advanced Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) upgrade at Marina Bay last year, to boost indoor network capacity and speeds for customers.

“We are happy that StarHub’s 4G LTE-Advanced network attained OpenSignal’s ‘Fastest Network with LTE’ title twice in a row, but there is more we can do to get better mileage out of our existing wireless spectrum. We are closely tracking the development of this new small cell solution, to help us enhance network quality quickly and cost-efficiently, providing customers with much faster data speeds even within buildings and in crowded areas,” said Mock Pak Lum, Chief Technology Officer, StarHub. “In collaboration with partners like Huawei, we are always on the lookout for the latest available technologies to stay ahead of trends and to meet customer expectations.”

“The continuous advancement of mobile network technologies offers tremendous opportunities for better service experience over apps on smart devices. Indoor digital networks will be just as indispensable as running water and electricity for buildings,” said David Zheng, Vice President of Small Cell Product Line, Wireless Production Line, Huawei. “Huawei is committed to working with StarHub to deliver innovative services that bring benefits to mobile customers.”

Commercial trials of the solution are ongoing, and StarHub aims to deploy it when supported phone models reach Singapore’s shores.

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